


25 Days of Christmas

by BizarreDreamer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 25 days of way too much fluff hopefully, Advent Calendar, Christmas, Draco trying to be domestic, Established Relationship, F/M, Harry mostly just staying out of his way, M/M, Mistletoe, Secret Santa, Thestrals as reindeer., Ugly Christmas Sweaters, decking the halls
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-02 12:04:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16786603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BizarreDreamer/pseuds/BizarreDreamer
Summary: Draco wants this Christmas, their first together, to be perfect, and Harry knows better than to try and stand in his way. There are most probably some mishaps, but mostly Draco is sure it will be a lot of fun.Or: 25 short chapters (one per day) of Draco's adventures in trying to make the best Christmas season ever.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically just 25 short chapters of Draco doing various things to make Christmas perfect. Some of them, of course, turn out better than others. I'm trying to pack a lot of fluff and good feelings into this one! If you have any suggestions for fun winter/Christmas/Yule things, let me know, and if I can, or if I don't already have it in there, I can try and sneak it in! I'm going to be trying to post one every day until Christmas Eve!

Christmas was coming, and Draco was a lot less prepared than he wanted to be. It was his first Christmas with Harry, and it had to be perfect. He was aware that he might be taking it a bit too seriously, Harry certainly thought so, but they had just moved in together, and it felt so important. So he might have asked Weasley and Granger both for some tips, and now he had a list. It was a combination of wizarding and muggle, and he was quite proud of it, though he was starting to worry about getting to do everything on his list. Decorating was going to be especially daunting since they had moved into a renovated #12 Grimmauld Place. The house was massive, and he was determined that all of the main rooms be done up for the holiday.

Since it was December first, he could give Harry the first thing on his list. He found him in the library hunched over a book with his glasses sliding down his nose. “Harry,” he said in a sing song voice.

Harry looked up at him, a smile spreading across his face, “Hello love. And what are you up to?”

“Your first Christmas present of the year!”

Frowning slightly, Harry shook his head, “Draco, you really don’t need to…”

Draco cut him off, “We’ve already had this argument, and decided that you can’t actually stop me, so please stop being difficult.” He thrust the advent calendar with the picture of Santa and his sleigh on it at Harry. He kept the one with the large Christmas tree on it for himself, and seeing Harry’s confused expressing,explained, “They’re called advent calendars. They have numbers on them, and you open that number every day of December leading up to Christmas.”

“Well that’s not so bad then,” Harry said, opening the little flap labeled with a one. A look of pleasant surprise crossed his face as he realized it was chocolate inside.

Grinning, Draco opened his own, and popped the chocolate in his mouth. He’d need to remember to thank Granger again for these, he definitely wanted them every year.

“Alright,” Harry said, “These can be approved as a new Christmas tradition. Just promise me you won’t go too overboard? I know you want this Christmas to be special, but you really don’t need to try so hard.”

Rolling his eyes, Draco said, “Harry, you and I both know that you can’t stop me. This is our first Christmas together and I want it to be special. I know things are going well, and that we’re both doing good in our world after the war, but Christmases have still been hard. It can be hard to celebrate when...well, you know. I feel like this is the first year I’ve really been ready to celebrate, and I want to. Also, you can’t actually stop me, so you should just resign yourself to being along for the ride.”

Harry smiled at him, “Alright, fine, but can we add one more thing to your Christmas to do list?”

“It depends on what it is, but since this is as much about making you happy as it is me, probably.”

“I want to have a Christmas party for the kids at the orphanage on Christmas Eve,” Harry told him, looking earnest.

Instead of going into the aurors like so many people had thought Harry would do, he had decided to work with the Ministry in a different way. He oversaw different foundations that offered help in their world after the war with the Ministry, as well as being on the Hogwarts School Board where he was trying to get better education for muggleborns before Hogwarts, Draco worked on the Board with him, and helped sometimes with the foundations when he wasn’t busy with the businesses his family still worked with. The orphanage was a pet project for them both, and Draco felt guilty for not having something planned there already.

He nodded, “Of course we can. I’ll send word to my mother and Mrs. Weasley and see if they would be interested in helping us setting something up since they spend so much time there.” It had come as a bit of a shock when he had visited his mother one day only to find her having tea with the Weasley matron. Without his father around, his mother was finding a new purpose doing much the same as Harry and even Draco did, and finding ways to help their world rebuild. He was positive the two of them would be quite miffed if he didn’t ask them to throw the party for the orphanage.

Harry was grinning at him now, “Wonderful! Since we agreed to skip the Ministry party, this will be even better. Maybe I’ll go out tomorrow and start looking for presents for the kids.”

Draco shook his head, more than content with his lot in life. He had people he loved, even if some of them he had never expected, a wonderful boyfriend, and he was trying to change the world in a positive way. He just hoped baking cookies was as easy as the house elves always made it look.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And day number 2!

On the second of December they had business at Hogwarts, or, rather, Harry had five minutes of business at Hogwarts and then went to have tea with Hagrid. Draco had looked into the woods thoughtfully before telling Harry that he would join them in awhile. 

He knew that there were a lot of people at Hogwarts still affected by the war and deaths in their world. Too many of the students could see thestrals now, and he knew from experience that they could be a frightening sight, even though they were mostly rather gentle creatures. 

He’d had a rather odd dream several days before, probably fueled by his Christmas induced frenzy. The dream had featured thestrals pulling Santa’s sleigh. The imagery had been more than a little off putting at first, but it had certainly stuck in his mind. He wondered if he could work out a glamour that would make the thestrals look more like the reindeer from the muggle Christmas stories. 

Making his decision, he made his way into the forest towards the area where he knew the heard of thestrals lived. He had spent quite a bit of time with the thestrals and Luna after the war. He rather hoped that at least a few of them remembered him. He stopped at the bin that Hagrid kept their food in to grab a bucket of the meat to help with getting their cooperation. When he got to the area he couldn’t tell if they were excited to see him or excited about the smell of the food. They had crowded around him rather quickly, waiting impatiently while he handed out food and patted the necks of the thestrals that came the closest to him.

He knew that glamouring them would be a hefty bit of magic, and he definitely couldn’t get to all of them. He did know which ones were likely to be pulling the carriages for the holidays though. The friendliest ones, which were at the moment still crowded around him even though the food was gone, were usually the ones most often allowed near the students. 

Armed with that knowledge and perhaps a little too much determination, he set to work trying to make the thestrals look a little less like skeletal horses and a little more like festive reindeer. It didn’t take him as long as he thought it would, though it did take him a bit more energy than he had hoped. By the time he was finished, he was more than ready for some tea, and perhaps a nap.

One of the more enthusiastic and curious of the lot had decided to follow Draco back to Hagrid’s hut. This worked out, in a way, because then Harry and Hagrid would get a chance to see one of them. Harry likely wouldn’t be back at Hogwarts before Christmas, and He really didn’t want to startle Hagrid with it. There was no telling if Hagrid would know what had been done to the thestrals or not.

Both men were outside again when he wandered out of the forest. They glanced at him and immediately did a double take when they realized he wasn’t alone. They stared with their mouths open for a moment before either of them apparently knew what to say.

“Um, Draco? What on earth is that?” Harry asked, confusion clearly written across his face and lacing his voice. Beyond being confused, it was hard to tell what exactly Harry thought of his festive thestral.

Draco fidgeted, even though it had seemed like a good idea at the time, now he wasn’t as sure. The reindeer were more of a muggle thing, but they still looked festive if you didn't know exactly what they were supposed to be, right?

He looked nervously between the two men, Hagrid looking just as bewildered as Harry did. He shrugged, patting the thestral’s neck. “I just was thinking, you know, that there are still students here that saw deaths during the war, and I know the thestrals are a constant reminder of that. I just thought it would be nice to dress them up for the holiday and maybe give the students a more positive connotation with them? I thought reindeer might bee neat, and not undoable? I know that they don’t look exactly like reindeer, but still…”

Harry had come up to him and pulled him into his arms, planting a soft kiss on his lips. “That’s amazing Draco. I’m sure the students will love it. What do you think, Hagrid?”

Draco looked at Hagrid who was out right beaming at him. “He looks wonderful! Jus’ wonderful, Draco! That’s no small bi’ o’ magic, either! I’m sure the professors will be impressed too!”

He grinned at them, giving the thestral a once over. He’d managed to give it the appearance of being fuller,, less skinny. It looked like there were antlers on its head, and it appeared to be more of a dark brown in coloring now. He had also charmed the feet of the thestrals to sound like bells tinkling when they walked, and there were small floating lights around the antlers. The final touch had been the branches he had transfigured into bows around their necks. 

“I only managed to do the ones I knew for certain that you would use for the carriages, Hagrid. I just thought it might be nice. They should hold up at least until Christmas. Maybe longer, I’m just not sure,” Draco said, yawning slightly.

Harry shook his head as he led them back into Hagrid’s hut. “You know if you told me what you were doing, I would have helped!”

Shrugging, Draco took the cup of steaming tea Hagrid handed him. “Thank you. And yes, Harry, I am aware that you would have helped. But I didn’t know if it would work, especially since thestrals are so magical on their own. It probably helped that I took them a snack. If they didn’t want me to do it, I don’t think it would have worked at all.”

Hagrid nodded, “Thestrals are like a lot of magical creatures, they know if you’ve got good or bad intentions. Helps too that you’ve spent quite a bit o’ time with ‘em.”

Harry shook his head and grinned, “Never thought I would see you go this far over a holiday, and certainly not for people you barely know. It’s really great Draco.”

Draco half glared at him over his cup, “Prat. I did tell you I wanted this Christmas to be perfect. That does extend to others besides you, you know. Maybe I was just doing it because I knew it would make you happy.”

Smiling widely, Harry said, “Yeah, I doubt that. Face it, your reputation of being the Ice Prince has deserted you. Everyone knows you’ve got a heart of gold now.”

Draco wasn’t entirely inclined to agree, he rather thought that silver was more appropriate. Still, Harry was right and he was glad of it. He wondered idly if he could get Hagrid to take some pictures of his festive thestrals. He would, so far, consider is second Christmas venture a success.


	3. Chapter 3

The third day of December started out a lot less fun. There was an issue at the orphanage and Harry was needed there for most of the day which left Draco needing to push another plan back and work on something else. He was a lot less impressed with this new venture. 

This particular project he had actually asked both Molly Weasley and Granger for help with. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone else, because he knew most of his friends would tease him about it. Not that they weren’t doing that already with his apparently going overboard with Christmas. 

He’d got this idea from Mrs. Weasley’s Christmas jumpers. He knew that he didn’t have enough time to learn to make anything as big or as complicated as that, so he had decided on smaller projects. At first he had thought that hats would be a good idea, but Granger had quickly informed him that he might be better off making something like a scarf first instead.

So, armed with entirely too much yarn, several different knitting needles and crochet hooks, and three different books with patterns and spells, Draco settled in. He had wanted to try doing it without the spells first. Predictably, it didn’t go so well. After an hour with absolutely no progress and an even bigger mess, Draco was a more than a little fed up with the whole thing. 

He took a few minutes to calm down and then worked on cleaning up the mess he had managed to make. Once he got the wayward yearn under control (really, how had it ended up tangled in his hair?) he decided that maybe he would have better luck with the spells for his projects. 

This proved to be even more of a disaster. The first one had started out okay, so he had started two more. In less than thirty minutes it had all gone to hell. It looked like the yarn had exploded all over the living room as well as all over Draco. Green, grey, and red yarn was literally everywhere. 

Draco threw his hands into the air and trudged over to the fireplace to floo call Granger. She would probably laugh, but he knew she would help him straighten things but without too much teasing. 

Predictably, Granger took one look at him and laughed herself silly before coming through. “Oh Draco, what on earth did you try and do?”

He scowled at her, “I tried doing it by hand, and that didn’t end quite so badly, but it wasn’t going well. So then I tried one of the spells and that went better, so I started up a couple more, and then this happened.” This just sent her into another peal of laughter. “Granger, this is not that funny!”

She narrowed her eyes at him, “Draco,” she said in a warning tone.

He rolled his eyes. It had been more than a bit of effort to adjust to first names after all of the years he spent calling them only by their last names, but Granger, or Hermione, rather, insisted that they were friends. Apparently, calling them by their last names wasn’t acceptable if they were friends.

“Fine! Hermione, it isn’t that funny!”

She smiled beatifically at him, swished her wand, and watched as the living room set itself to rights. He was really going to need to work on learning more household charms. If there was a charm to keep yarn from tangling, he definitely wanted that too. He shook his head and left her to it to make some tea for the two of them. He definitely felt like he needed it right about then. 

He came back into the room a few minutes later to find Hermione organizing his yarn. She took the cup of tea gratefully. "I'm not entirely sure how you managed it, but this was impressive. If you're trying to get multiple scarves done by Christmas, which I strongly suspect you are, you should probably just get the hang of the spells for them and set them up to make themselves. I picked out which spells are the easiest and made a list of them. Some of them are the ones I used when I was learning to do the charms in fourth year."

Draco thought he remembered Harry mentioning something about that. It had something to do with trying to free all of the Hogwarts house elves. He was glad that she had stopped harassing the poor things. "Are there any particular tricks I should be using to, well, not end up looking like a yarn store threw up in here?"

Hermione snorted, "Don't leave your projects so close together. Especially if you're trying one of the charms that puts stripes into the scarves. It goes by proximity, so if you have too much yarn too close to it, it's just going to try and add in all of the yarn, whether it's attached to another project or not. I strongly suspect that's what got you in trouble in the first place."

"That...might have been part of it. To be fair, the books don't mention anything about that!"

She laughed lightly again, "I don't think most of the books were written with the thought that anyone might try and do a bunch of projects all at once. Though that is a fair point. There really ought to be a warning about it at least. Now, would you like some help setting all of this back up?"

He thought about it for a moment. He'd wanted to do this start to finish on his own, to surprise their friends with something he had managed to make, just for them. On the other hand, clearly he needed a little bit of guidance, or he might end up right back where he was. "Can you just, I don't know, sort of supervise? I still want to be able to do it myself but you saw how well that worked out."

"Of course I can Draco. So, are you going to tell me what else you have planned for your month long Christmas event?"

He rolled his eyes, "It isn't an event. I just want Christmas to be perfect. Oh, Harry wants to do Christmas Eve at the orphanage. Mrs. Weasley and Mother are setting it up. You and Ronald are, of course, expected to be there."

Hermione nodded, "That sounds wonderful. I assume Harry has already started getting gifts for the children?" 

"You have no idea. He's got one of the unused bedrooms upstairs already full of them and an entire closet full of wrapping paper. I've had to remind him twice already that he won't be the only one contributing to their presents, but you know how he is with them," Draco told her. Harry had been so excited about it already, and they had only decided on it two days ago. Still, it was good to see him so invested in something positive. It also kept him from harping on Draco for going overboard on his plans for the perfect Christmas. 

By the time Hermione left an hour later, Draco managed to have three scarves half way done in different areas of the living room with no problem. He decided he could set up a few more in rooms they didn’t really use so that Harry wouldn’t stumble on them. His day certainly could have gone better, but he had Hermione helping him to organize their Secret Santa now, and he finally had his yarn projects actually working instead of making a mess. If this was the biggest hiccup he had during the month, he would be beyond grateful for it. Somehow, he doubted it would be though. Day three, though a bit of a mess, was a success.


	4. Chapter 4

There was a muggle Christmas song that Granger, or rather Hermione, had shown him that talked about decking the halls. At first the concept had confused him, but after she had laughed herself silly and explained it to him, it wasn’t all that different than what the elves did at Hogwarts or the manor. He wasn’t so sure about bringing a bunch of boughs of holly into the house, but he definitely wanted to get the place decorated. 

Kreacher had been recruited to help them with the brunt of it, and the old elf had brought down several boxes of old decorations for them to go through. While Kreacher still grumbled under his breath, he was a generally happier elf now that Grimmauld was in better repair and he had more than one person to care for. It had helped even more that Draco had Black blood in him. The elf had even helped them move Sirius’s mother’s painting up into the attic, which had been turned into a haven for the elf and all of the junk he wouldn’t let them throw away. It worked out, keeping Kreacher happy and keeping the mess out of the rest of the house. Most of the items had belonged to Sirius’s family and held sentimental value for the elf. 

Harry looked uncertainly at the boxes in front of them. Some of them looked like what Sirius had used in his fifth year, but the rest of them looked to be as old as he was. “Draco, are you sure this is a good idea? We could always just buy brand new decorations.”

Draco looked up at him from where he was digging through a box. “We still might need to go shopping for a few extra things, but between what we have here and some charms, it shouldn’t be much. They’re just decorations, Harry, not cursed objects. I did ask Kreacher to make sure before he brought them down. Now, what sort of color scheme do you think?”

Harry knew that his boyfriend had a point, but last couple times he’d gone snooping around in a box of items left sitting around the house, he had almost lost a finger to a jewelry box that bit people. “Alright. Um, we could just do the more traditional red, green, gold, and silver? Since you were wanting a more traditional Christmas, that would work well, right?”

Beaming at him, Draco nodded, "Sounds good to me! It doesn't hurt that it represents both our former Houses either. It is very traditional though. Do you think we could charm it to look like it's snowing around the tree? I looked up a spell for it earlier."

"I'm sure we can manage it," Harry told him, smiling slightly. Even after living in the magical world for so many years, Harry still had a tendency to forget how magical things really could be. It was nice to remember that things could be magical and beautiful just for the sake of being precisely that. 

They spent the next hour going through the boxes. A lot of the flimsier decorations weren't usable any more, but there were a lot of glass baubles for random decoration that were still in good shape. There was also a large box that was full of glass bulbs to go onto the tree and a stunning silver glass star that looked to be tree topper. They set Kreacher to putting up some of the glass baubles and left the house to do a bit of shopping for decorations.

Draco insisted on going to a small shop just off Diagon Alley that his mother had mentioned to find the rest of their decorations. Harry had been rather uncertain about it until they stepped inside. The inside of the shop had been expanded so that it looked rather like a Christmas village. There were trees that were already decorated, books on decorating for any specific holiday, crystal ornaments, glass bulbs, and even some decorations that ran more towards muggle themes. There was a large Santa in the back, with an actual sleigh and reindeer sculpted so perfectly that it was difficult to tell if they were real. 

Draco was greatly enjoying the store, but he thought that Harry was probably enjoying it more. He kept having to tug lightly on his hand to move them further into the store. "Alright Harry, is there anything specific you wanted to look for? Something that you always thought was pretty growing up?"

Harry half shrugged, appearing to think about it. "I mean, stockings? That you hang by the chimney and fill with small presents. I always wanted to do that. I saw it on a program on the telly once. I really like the wreaths, too, that you put up on your doors?"

Tilting his head, Draco nodded and headed toward the side of the store that had more of the muggle decorations to see if they had the stockings Harry was interested in. "I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for in the stockings, so you can pick those out on your own? I saw some wreaths towards the front, and some boughs put together with pine cones that looked pretty. Do you mind if I get those while you look for the stockings?"

Harry shook his head and kissed Draco lightly, "Go on, meet me back here in a few minutes?"

"Of course, love. It shouldn't take long." Draco wandered over towards the wreaths, finding some with bows in the colors they were using, and then some of the nicer boughs that were tied together that smelled like the trees his mother always put up at the manor. The pine cones on them shimmered softly, and he rather thought that they would like nice on some of the blank wall space they had. He got someone to help get them wrapped up, and made his way back to Harry, who appeared to be looking at some of the small ornaments they had at the front. 

He wrapped his arms around Harry's waist and rested his chin on his shoulder, "Did you find something else?"

Harry held out an ornament with a black dog, hanging from a red ribbon, "Do you reckon we could get this?"

It only took Draco a moment to make the connection to Black, and he nodded against Harry's shoulder, "Of course we can. We'll put him in the front near the top, yeah?"

He felt his boyfriend relax and nod, "Yeah, that would be great. Did you find everything you wanted?"

"Pretty much. All that's left to do is pay and get it all home. We'll need to go in the next few days and get a tree to put up as well, but since the house is so big, I thought that might be better off as it's own adventure."

Harry rolled his eyes a little, leading Draco to the counter, "Why doesn't that surprise me." It took them several minutes to get checked out, mostly because the shop was bustling and there were more than a couple people in the line ahead of them. Once they got home, Kreacher was more than happy to help them unwrap their purchases and begin to set them up.

They started in the entryway, or rather by putting one of the wreaths that Draco had picked out on the front door. The rest of the wreaths were spread out and put on the outsides of doors that were most used. After the fifth one was put up, Harry looked at him oddly. "Don't you think you might have overdone it just a little with all of the wreaths?"

Draco shrugged, "It's a big house! And any way, I thought they looked festive! We'll just get the strings of silver and gold beads put up on the banister, and the boughs up on the wall, and then let Kreacher do what little is left!"

It took them another hour, but they finally had all of it put up to Draco's satisfaction, with Harry just finishing up hanging the stockings by the fireplace. For Draco he had picked out a green stocking with a silver tree embroidered on it, and for himself he had picked out one that was it's match but red with a gold tree. He thought that it was rather fitting. The only thing that they really needed to complete the look of the house was a tree...and something else. 

"Draco? Muggles put up strings of little lights, I know wizards have some sort of equivalent. Is that something we should have bought, or is it a charm?"

Yes, that's what they had been missing. Draco nodded, "A charm is easiest to put up fairy lights I think. I knew I was forgetting something!" They spent another half an hour charming little warmly glowing fairy lights into and around the other decorations in the house. It was a vast improvement over what the house had looked like that morning. He would consider their first bout of decorating a success, Draco figured as they settled down with hot cocoa and some Christmas music. Of course, there was still the tree.


	5. Chapter 5

Draco knew that getting a tree would be an adventure. At first he thought of simply going out onto the grounds of Malfoy Manor and trying to get one, but decided that might not be the most ideal route. Not really knowing off the top of his head of an alternative, he asked Harry if he had any ideas. 

"Well, we could go to a lot. Or just go to a random forest somewhere and get one? I'm not much more certain than you are about it. Maybe ask Mrs. Weasley. Or Hermione? I don't think I had a tree last year. I mean, before this I was just always at the Weasleys' for Christmas," Harry told him, looking unsure.

He flooed Mrs. Weasley first, which wasn't that helpful. "We get our tree near-by. There's a little wooded area that we make sure to keep trees planted in just for the holidays and for firewood during the winter. Of course, you and Harry are more than welcome to come and pick out a tree if you want, dear!" 

While it was a nice offer, it didn't really appeal to him, which was why he hadn't bothered to ask his mother. He knew that she did the same thing as the Weasley's did, so asking her wouldn't yield any different results. It occurred to him that a lot of people probably had similar ways of getting a tree, or even had their elves get a tree for them. While he was sure Kreacher would be more than happy to get a tree for them, he didn't think that's what he wanted to do. Finally, he did as Harry had suggested, and flooed Hermione, who said she was on her way over anyways. Draco was left blinking into the empty fireplace as Harry chuckled behind him and asked Kreacher to make tea. 

"Did you know she was coming over?" Draco asked him grumpily. 

Harry shook his head, "Didn't have a clue, but she does tend to pop over more during the holidays. I think it's just because she wants to make sure I'm not getting depressed, and now it's just a thing we do. Dunno, it's nice usually though. Don't look so miffed, you spend almost more time with her these days than I do!"

"Yes, well, that doesn't mean that I approve of her just coming over whenever she wants. I do like my privacy."

Harry rolled his eyes, knowing that Draco was protesting it just for the sake of it. "Does that apply to Pansy coming over randomly and staying for dinner or even just worming her way onto our couch when we're having a relaxing evening?"

Draco half glared at him for a minute before grinning cheekily, "Point." 

Hermione arrived around fifteen minutes later, a confused Ron following behind her. Draco had been expecting her, but sometimes he forgot that Weasley was a semi permanent figure by her side. "Hermione, Ronald, we have tea in the kitchen."

Hermione was already headed that way, pulling gloves and a scarf off as she went, "Wonderful! It's funny that you were asking about a tree, that was actually what we were going to come over and talk to you about. Since this is our first year in our own place, we were coming up with a similar issue. I looked around, and there's actually a tree lot not too far from here that's run by a muggleborn that missed going to a lot to find their tree. So, I thought, if you wanted, we could all go together and get our trees today?"

Draco had originally planned for it to be something he did with just Harry, it made more sense to go as a group, and Harry really hadn't been able to see his friends much the last couple of weeks anyways, so it would probably do them all some good. "That sounds lovely. Just give us a few minutes to get dressed in warmer clothes."

While the two of them were getting into warmer clothes, Harry asked, "Are you sure you're okay with going with them to get a tree together?"

"Of course I am. I wouldn't have agreed to it otherwise. It'll be nice to spend some time with them, and with Weasley going I won't be the only one completely confused, so it's a win-win situation for me."

"You realize I've never actually been to a lot either? I just know about them and I know the general idea," Harry reminded him. Draco hadn't forgotten, not really, but sometimes it did slip his mind that Harry's upbringing had been more than a little distasteful. 

He shrugged, "Then Hermione will just get to enjoy once again knowing more about what's going on than the rest of us do, won't she? Not much new there." Harry had snorted but was clearly in agreement.

Twenty minutes later saw the four of them standing at the entrance to the tree lot. It looked a lot like a forest to Draco, except that the trees had little tags with prices on them . Thankfully it hadn’t snowed that day, so they could see what the trees looked like pretty clearly. 

“How tall do you think the ideal tree would be?” Ron asked them, trying to size up the massive amounts of trees in front of them. 

Draco had to think about that. He didn’t want the tree to be too tall, but a short tree was out too. He guided a confused Ron to stand in front of one of the tall trees fairly close to them and said, “I think as long as it’s not more than a head taller than you, Ronald, it should be the appropriate height.”

Harry and Hermione were both outright laughing while Ron looked indignant. “So I’m a unit of measurement now?”

“Only for the perfect Christmas tree height,” Draco told him smugly. 

Hermione leaned over to kiss Ron on the cheek lightly, “I agree with Draco on this one, I think that’s about the right height for a Christmas tree. Now, come on! We need to find two trees, preferably before it gets any colder out here!”

Ron grumbled a bit but followed her, while Harry and Draco went in the opposite direction. Draco had thought he would be the picky one with the Christmas tree, but it quickly became apparent that Harry was looking for something rather specific.

“What about this one?” Draco asked, walking around a tree that was full and a deep green, if not as tall as he would prefer.

Harry walked around it and shook his head. “It’s a bit short. And there’s this gap over here on the other side, too, that we would have to cover up.”

Harry found something wrong with the next five trees Draco pointed out. Anything from “No, we’d have to cut a bit of it off for it to be the right height.” to “It’s just too skinny. It doesn’t even look like a proper tree!” which left Draco feeling a bit exasperated. 

Finally, he resorted to following Harry around and hoping that his boyfriend eventually found one that met all of his expectations. Hermione and Ron had found one after thirty minutes, and it took another thirty minutes of them wandering around with Harry before he found one that he thought was perfect. Draco had to agree. There were no spaces to fill, it looked to be exactly a head taller than Ron, or as exact as that measurement could be. It was full, but not to the point that it would take up a massive amount of space, and the green was as deep and vibrant as Harry’s eyes. 

“This one, I want this one,” Harry muttered, looking just a little bit like he was in awe. Ron clapped him on the shoulder in relief and muttered about going to get someone to help them so they could pay and get inside where it was warm. 

Draco sincerely hoped that it wouldn’t be quite so difficult to find a tree every year. It didn’t take them long to pay and get it home, it was a simple matter of calling for Kreacher who knew exactly where they planned to put it up in their living room. They said their goodbyes to their friends and went their separate ways”

“You know, I thought I was going to be the difficult one to please today,” Draco informed him as they were taking their outermost layers off. 

Harry just grinned at him cheekily, “Well, you did say that you wanted it to be perfect. I was just helping you make sure that it was.”

“Mhm, sure you were. Think we can wait to decorate it until tomorrow? It’s kind of pretty sitting in there just the way it is,” Draco said, smiling at Harry.

“Yeah, sure. I wouldn’t mind just sitting down and getting warm for awhile. I do have a stack of mail and work papers to go through, too, but that can be done after while.”

In a perfect ending to a slightly aggravating day, they sat cuddled on their couch for an hour or two with hot tea and a crackling fire. Finding a tree, while more work than Draco thought it should be, was definitely rewarding for the wide smile Harry wore for the rest of the day. Hopefully decorating it would be easier.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm behind! I got kind of sick for a few days, so I'll be trying to double up for a few days to catch up!

Draco understood that decorating the tree for Christmas was a huge deal. It set the tone for the entire holiday, and it wasn’t something that you just sort of threw together. You had to actually put in effort for it, which was more than fine with him. 

The tree had been taunting him all day while he tried to get some work done. About an hour before he knew Harry was supposed to be home, he had set the stage, as it were. He had Kreacher make mulled wine, he got the Wizarding Wireless setup on a station that played holiday music, and got all of the tree decorations set up. He looked over the spell for the snow on the tree, and kept the book out and open just in case. And then he waited for another half hour for Harry to get home. 

Harry took one look at everything and grinned at him, “How long exactly have you been sitting here waiting for me?”

“Not that long really. About a half hour? I might have overestimated how long it would take me to get everything set up.”

Shaking his head, Harry left the room for a moment, presumably to get more comfortable since he came back in lounge clothes and without shoes. “You’re adorable,” he informed Draco, leaning down to kiss the tip of his nose and chuckling when Draco went a bit cross-eyed trying to keep track of the movement. 

“Yes, well, I have to keep up with your cuteness level, don’t I? Do you need a snack, or can we start?”

Harry rolled his eyes but grinned, “I’m sure I can wait until dinner to eat, and it looks like you already have drinks ready. Why don’t we just go ahead and get started?”

Draco hummed happily and kissed Harry again, then stood up and started pulling the box with ornaments closer to the tree, “Alright, so we have tinsel, does that go on first of last?”

“I have no idea. If you put it on first you might not see it as well, but if you put it on last it might cover everything else up? I was never around when the Dursley’s put up the tree,” Harry admitted softly. 

He nodded, thinking it over for a moment. He knew Harry wouldn’t want him to focus on the bit about the Dursley’s, so for the time being he ignored that. “How about we do the tinsel first? There are two small packs. I’m pretty sure a little will go a long way, so we’ll both take a package and just...put it on?”

Harry nodded, “That seems simple enough.”

It wasn’t. They quickly found out that tinsel, no matter how pretty, had a way of getting absolutely everywhere. No matter how delicately and precisely they attempted to put it on the tree, it seemed to find its way everywhere but the tree. Draco could swear there was more if in Harry’s unruly hair than on the tree. 

Harry half glared at the tree before turning to Draco. “This isn’t working. This crap goes literally everywhere but where we want it to. There has to be an easier way to do this.”

“Maybe we could levitate it? Or just throw it? Maybe we should just ask Kreacher for help with this part,” Draco said. As much as he had wanted to do it all themselves, and as amusing as a tinsel covered Harry was, he was pretty close to losing it with the damned tinsel.

They settled on calling Kreacher to help after a failed attempt at levitating the obnoxious stuff. The house elf was clearly amused, and they didn’t even need to tell him what they wanted before the house elf had them sorted out. 

“Thanks Kreacher,” Draco said with a sigh.

The actual ornaments were significantly easier to put on the tree, though the tinsel still seemed to be coming off the tree every time it was touched. It was clearly going to be an ongoing battle. Draco watched with affection when Harry put the small dog ornament in the front near the top as the last ornament to go on the tree. Draco put the star topper on the tree and they stood back to look at it.

“Just the fairy lights and the snow left then,” Harry said, looking rather pleased. 

Draco nodded and cast the charm for the fairy lights and then took a moment to appreciate the view before casting the spell for the snow fall. Just like the tinsel, he thought it would be easier to accomplish than it actually was. The first try just conjured a wind with a few flakes on it, and his second try was nearly a blizzard. 

Harry quickly cast a finite and stopped it, but looked entirely too amused with the situation. “Well, that could have gone better. Want to try again? Maybe try to cast it with power somewhere in between the two?”

He narrowed his eyes and tried again. By the time they actually got the spell working they way it was supposed to, lightly snowing but only on the tree with the rest of the snow vanishing as soon as it touched the ground, Draco was more than ready to be done with the tree. “Right, well, remind me next year that it’s rather a pain to do tinsel and snow on the bloody tree.”

“That’s true, though it does look stunning,” Harry said, smiling at him and nodding toward the tree. 

Harry was right, it was stunning. He had dimmed the lights so that they could see the tree more clearly. The fairy lights glowed softly, creating a shine in the ornaments and the snow. Draco rather thought that the tree looked even better than some of them had at Hogwarts and the manor. 

They spent the rest of the evening together looking at the tree and drinking mulled wine, talking quietly between themselves. Despite the mishaps, Draco couldn’t have been more pleased with how the tree had turned out.


End file.
